Pot times

Marijuana Trafficking Moving Onto The Web

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1096/a07.html
Newshawk: chip

Pubdate: Sat, 09 Jul 2005
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2005 The Charlotte Observer
Contact: opinion@charlotteobserver.com
Website: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Ely Portillo, Knight Ridder
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

MARIJUANA TRAFFICKING MOVING ONTO THE WEB

Pot, Paraphernalia And Instructions Available On Hundreds Of Sites

WASHINGTON - The world of marijuana trafficking once existed mostly in shady places where the right dealers hung out or in exotic locales such as Amsterdam.  But technology, which has revolutionized almost every other aspect of our world, has changed that.

Now, a simple Google search reveals a universe of online pot, including hundreds of Web sites offering to sell marijuana and paraphernalia such as bongs and marijuana seeds as well as free directions for growing marijuana.

How many marijuana growers the Internet has instructed or how much marijuana changes hands online each year isn't known.  But experts agree that the Internet has become the world's biggest head shop and that stemming that digital tide will be difficult for governments.

Drug users "can obtain whatever they want ( online ) with more ease than in the conventional illicit street market," the International Narcotics Control Board, an arm of the United Nations, said in a news release in April.  The board said serious steps must be taken if governments hope to control the Web-based drug trade.

The European Union, citing increased European marijuana use during the past decade, adopted a resolution last July encouraging its members to crack down on marijuana cultivation and promotional Web sites.

Allen St.  Pierre, director of the pro-legalization group National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said there were at least 200 to 400 varieties of marijuana seeds available online, specially bred for every type of growing condition in North America.

Interstate marijuana trafficking carries a penalty of up to five years in jail and a possible $250,000 fine for first offenders, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

St.  Pierre pointed out that marijuana seeds' lack of odor and small size make them hard to detect in the mail.

Never before has so much drug culture been so readily available, especially to the estimated 21 million American teens who use the Internet.

Marijuana use among 12th-graders has fallen 4 percentage points within the past year since its most recent peak, in 1997, but 34.3 percent of 12th-graders still said in 2004 that they'd used the drug within the last year, according to Monitoring the Future, an annual survey of drug use.

Marijuana Web sites are particularly insidious because parents don't realize their danger, said Tom Riley, a spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy.  "Even parents who do realize that marijuana is a serious problem still think ...  their teens are going to be exposed to marijuana from a shady character in the street -- not on the computer, possibly sitting a few feet away from them," he said.  "It's a serious problem that this is on the Internet."

The DEA's hot line, ( 877 ) RxAbuse ( 792-2873 ), part of the government's efforts to shut down illegal online pharmacies selling prescription drugs, also can be used to report marijuana Web sites, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.